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Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs today unveiled a new laptop computer the company is hailing as the "world's thinnest notebook" as well as a new online movie rental service through the company's iTunes store.
Clad in his trademark blue jeans and black turtleneck, Mr. Jobs made the announcements in front of a rapt audience of about 4,000 at the annual Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
But Canadian Apple fans were left feeling disappointed, as Mr. Jobs' keynote address did not include any mention of the iPhone coming to Canada.
Speculation had been rampant in recent months that Apple was in talks with studios regarding a movie rental service through the iTunes store that could change the way consumers watch videos. Today it was revealed all of Hollywood's major studios including Touchstone, Miramax, Lionsgate, New Line, Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal Sony and MGM, are backing the new service.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gives his keynote address at the Macworld Convention and Expo in San Francisco January 15, 2008. (Robert Galbraith/REUTERS)
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U.S. customers have access to the service today while an international launch is slated for later this year.
However, new releases will not be available through iTunes as quickly as they are on DVD. New releases will become available 30 days after they are released on DVD and consumers will be able to view them on their computers, iPods, iPhones or on their television with the Apple TV device.
New release movies will be available for $3.99 (U.S.) while older films will cost $2.99.
Consumers will have 30 days to begin watching a movie after "renting" it from iTunes and the movie file will stop working after 24 hours.
To complement the new iTunes movie rental service, Mr. Jobs announced a free software upgrade for Apple TV called Take 2. The upgrade will be available in two weeks and is regarded as a move designed to increase the public's appetite for the video streaming device.
With the upgrade users will be able to use Apple TV without a computer connection to rent HD-and DVD-quality videos and watch them on their television. HD movies will cost $4.99 and there are currently about 100 titles available. The price of Apple TV will fall from $299 to $229.
Mr. Jobs was joined on stage by Jim Gianopulos, chairman of 20th Century Fox Films, the first studio to sign on with Apple to participate in the iTunes movie rental business.
In a move which could signal the first major step in breaking down the walls between DVDs and digital movie files, Mr. Gianopulos announced that the new Family Guy DVD will include an iTunes compatible digital copy.
The final major announcement from Mr. Jobs was the unveiling of the MacBook Air. The new laptop computer is 3/4 of an inch thick and is so thin it fits inside a manila envelope, a feature Apple plans to highlight in the coming marketing campaign.
The MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch display as well as a backlit full size keyboard and a multi touch trackpad.
In order to get everything to fit inside the new notebook, Apple asked Intel Corp. to shrink the size of its Core 2 Duo chip. Intel chief executive Paul Otellini made an appearance alongside Mr. Jobs to talk about the new chip, which he said is as thick as a nickel and as wide as a dime.
The MacBook Air comes with a price tag of $1799, features a battery with five hours of run time and weighs slightly less than 3 pounds. It is due to begin shipping in two weeks, Mr. Jobs said.
Mr. Jobs touted the environmentally friendly features of the new MacBook Air, which include a mercury-free display, less packaging and a full aluminum case, which will make for easier recycling.
Among other announcements, Mr. Jobs said Apple has sold more than five million copies of the Leopard operating system for Macs in its first three months on the market. Almost 20 per cent of Mac OS X users have upgraded to the new OS, he said.
He also revealed the iPhone has sold four million units since going on sale last June and that consumers are gobbling the touchscreen cell phones up at a 20,000 per day clip. In first quarter shipping, the iPhone was the second most popular smart phone in the U.S. market - behind RIM's BlackBerry devices - with 19.5 per cent of the market, Mr. Jobs said according to various reports.
There was some speculation that a new 16-gigabyte iPhone would be announced, but those reports turned out not to be true.
Although Apple is due to release a software development kit in February that will allow third party developers to create new applications for the iPhone, Mr. Jobs said Apple would be releasing new software for the iPhone today, which, among other things, will enable users to customize the home screen of their iPhone.
The first new product Mr. Jobs unveiled was Time Capsule, a backup hard drive designed to work with the Time Machine functions embedded in Mac operating systems. A 500 GB version will cost $299 and a one terabyte version will retail for $499, according to Ars Technica.
Five new applications will be added to the iPod Touch, Mr. Jobs said. They include links to mail, stocks, notes, weather and maps. The applications will come standard on all new iPod Touch devices, but existing users will need to pay a $20 upgrade fee.
Apple's iTunes store continues to be a boon for the company. Mr. Jobs announced the online music store last week sold its four billionth song. Twenty million songs were sold on Christmas Day, a new record.
Mr. Jobs said that 125 million television shows and seven million movies have been sold through iTunes, both well below the company's expectations.
In the past Mr. Jobs has used Apple's annual Macworld convention to launch some of the companies marquee products including the iPhone, Apple TV and Mac Mini.
